Aceh Earthquake Research Articles

Mental health model of care programmes after the tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia

Before the tsunami, there was no systematic training provided for General Practitioners (GPs) and nurses in issues related to mental health and psychosocial support in times of disasters. After the tsunami, the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia in Jakarta was contracted to organize a special two-week intensive training programme on basic psychiatry for 13 GPs from Banda Aceh Mental Hospital. To improve the nursing practice, a Professional Nursing Practice Model (MPKP) has been piloted in two wards in Banda Aceh Mental Hospital. This is a model of best practice for nursing care and management in an open ward system developed by the School of Nursing group and implemented in several mental hospitals in Indonesia. Basic training of GPs located at the primary healthcare level is being carried out based on the existing Ministry of Health curriculum for GPs. It covers 14 conditions listed in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Primary Care classification and has been conducted in 11 tsunami-affected districts. Currently, a total of 169 GPs have been trained. In general, there is an increasing interest among primary care doctors in mental health. Currently, community mental healthcare is provided in 11 districts in Aceh and two districts in North Sumatra by 277 Community Mental Health Nurses (CMHN) who have received basic training. Two thousand six hundred and two cases of serious mental disorders (mostly chronic psychosis) have been detected and treated by the CMHN and the doctors in Primary Health Centres (PHC). CMHN can provide a vital link between patients in the community and doctors in PHC. Two years after the earthquake and tsunami in Aceh, psychosocial intervention should continue and mental healthcare should be made available not only at Banda Aceh Mental Hospital, but also general health services, including PHC services.

Geology In The Quran 2: Environmental Impact Of Volcanic Activities/Earthquakes/Tsunamis

Geology in general as found in the Quran was briefly presented during Poster Session B, Annual Geological Conference 2004, Kangar. In this current paper, other verses in the Quran more specifically applicable to volcanic activities, earthquakes and tsunamis are given. Interpretations from a geologist's point of view are made, which are considered more logical compared to previous interpretations by non-geologists. Specific references are made to: l.The Aceh earthquake and tsunami on 26th December, 2004 (more than a quarter million loss of lives), and 2. The earthquakes in Iran on 22nd February, 2005 (more than 400 loss of lives). It is quite conclusive that the Quranic verses considered are related to geological phenomena involving volcanic activities, earthquakes and tsunamis. There is no doubt that remedial actions will be taken to restore the damages created by the recent tsunamis. More research will be carried out as an effort to find ways to reduce loss of lives and property damage, for example, the tsunami early warning system, but above all, a strong call is made to mankind to pay very serious attention to religious and moral issues.

Hospital Preparedness: A Public Health Mandate Remains Under-Appreciated

At the time of this writing, the scope of devastation of the 26 December 2004 magnitude 9.0 Banda Aceh earthquake and subsequent South Asia Tsunami has yet to be determined. Initial reports in the lay press indicate that all 569 medical facilities in Sri Lanka have been destroyed. In the Banda Aceh region, only 82 of the 400 provincial health department staff have been accounted for, and approximately 150 physicians remain listed as missing [1]. The scale of the catastrophe, and its impact on the health care infrastructure, is a bleak reminder of the random power of nature, and the need for an adequate, flexible hospital response. Events of the past decade have increased awareness regarding mass casualty events (Table 1). The 1995 sarin nerve agent release on the Tokyo subway system raised global awareness for the potential use of so-called “weapons of mass destruction” by terrorist organizations against noncombatants, and the need to prepare non-military forces to deal with such casualties [2,3]. The subsequent push in the United States for domestic preparedness, however, largely focused on pre-hospital preparedness and protection. Nerve agent preparedness conveniently dove-tailed into preexisting procedures for hazardous materials response, and provided an immediate threat to be managed in the prehospital arena. The thought of subsequent hospital-based patient management, and therefore preparedness, never approached the radar screens of government officials in charge of preparedness development and funding. Hospital capability was essentially assumed, and the burden of development and maintenance placed upon the health care industry. While individual institutions took the initiative to develop hospital-based preparedness plans, little cohesion existed at the national level. Figure 1 Table 1: Selected Recent Mass Casualty Disaster Events The State of Ohio Terrorism Preparedness conference held 5-6 June 2000 in Columbus, OH, highlighted governmental indifference towards hospital capability and needs. When an attempt was made to address short-comings in current hospital preparedness, the issue was immediately deemed irrelevant to the State’s global preparedness vision, and was the only item relegated to the discussion trash bin during the entire break-out session (Figure 1). The big picture, that the hospital is part of the continuum of patient care initiated in the pre-hospital arena, appeared lost to many in leadership